Anushka Sharma was born in Bangalore, but her parents are from Garhwal, Uttarakhand. Her father, Col. Ajay Kumar Sharma, is an army officer and her mother Ashima Sharma is a housewife. She has an elder brother named Karnesh, who was a state-level cricketer and is now in the Merchant Navy. She studied in Army School and graduated with specialization in arts from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. She then moved to Mumbai to further pursue her modelling career, where she currently resides.